ISBN: 9781459040991

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www. million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHA… More...

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www. million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III. THE PURCHASE OF LOUISIANA. When La Salle set up the lilies of France at the mouth of the Mississippi River, and took possession of the whole country through which the great river flowed, in the name of Louis XIV, he knew better than anyone else the magnificence of his gift, and in his Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www. million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III. THE PURCHASE OF LOUISIANA. When La Salle set up the lilies of France at the mouth of the Mississippi River, and took possession of the whole country through which the great river flowed, in the name of Louis XIV, he knew better than anyone else the magnificence of his gift, and in his dreams of the future, saw Louisiana a rich and powerful country adding wealth and glory to the French crown. His plan for connecting the St. Lawrence, by a great chain of forts to the Mississippi, which he thought rose somewhere near China, and thus commanding the trade of the East, shows that he well appreciated the value of that vast region which, in less than a hundred years, was to take such an important place in the history of America. But after the death of La Salle his greatplans were for the most part given up, and it was over ten years before France again sent out an expedition to explore her new possessions. In the meantime, however, many Canadian hunters, and several priests, had journeyed down from Canada in their birch-bark canoes, and had settled among the tribes who lived on the borders of the river, and in this way the Indians of the Mississippi Valley grew familiar with the French language and religion, and in many cases formed strong and lasting friendships with the whites, and allowed them to travel up and down the river unmolested. And so all through the valley, from Lake Michigan to the Gulf of Mexico, could be found white men speaking the language of France, and priests ministering in little chapels built in the great forests, and graced with the wild flowers that the natives loved to bring as their peace-offerings. Sometimes a little pulpit was made and hung to the trunk of a great oak, and there the priest would stand, while the Indians crouche Books, , Childrens-Stories-of-American-Progress~~Henrietta-Christian-Wright, , , , , , , , , , General Books LLC<